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Why You Should Create A Speaker Resume

by on July 28, 2011

Speakers and presenters of all types: do you keep a list of past and future speaking engagements online?

You should. A speaker resume is an easy tool to grow your career and get better speaking engagements.

Conferences care about your speaking history

If you submitted a presentation to the SQL PASS Summit this year, you were asked to enter your speaking history.

Why?

When you run a large conference, it’s hard to know every single speaker who applies. If speakers provide their history and a biography, it’s easier to recognize people. If speakers provide a biography that lists their blog and an online speaker history, it’s much easier to get a sense of how long the person has been speaking.

Future employers care about your speaking history

Do your future self a favor– record all the hard work you’re doing now. If you’re presenting on one or more topics at online events or conferences, that says a lot about you.

Your speaker resume helps the community get to know you

We meet a lot of people at conferences, and we read a lot about people online! It’s hard to keep people straight, especially for new people entering a community.

Keeping a public record of what you speak on and where really will help community members understand who you are and what you’re interested in.

Your speaker resume will help promote conferences

When you’re going to appear at an event, you should blog about it and link to the event. This gives a little extra search engine mojo to the event creators, and it may help out people figuring out if they should attend, as well.

Don’t have a blog? Create one just for this.

Good news: you don’t blog about other topics if you don’t want to. If you’re a presenter, you should at least have a simple blog listing where you’ll be. It’s free, it’s quick, it’s easy. You can make the title your name and the subtitle “The Presenting Adventures of a Database Addict,” or something more reasonable to let people know you’re only blogging about your speaking dates.

How to create a speaker resume

If you’ve already got a blog and you write posts on different topics, here’s how to create your speaker resume:

  • Create a page called “Events”
  • Add heading that says “Upcoming Events” and one heading that says “Past Events”
  • Enter in your upcoming events
  • After you complete events, move them down to “Past Events”.
That’s it! That’s all you need to create your speaker resume.

Optional items for your speaker resume

  • Add a summary paragraph at the top of the page explaining what topics you speak on, how long you’ve been speaking, and what groups you speak for.
  • If you have dates and locations for past events, put those in.
  • If not and you can summarize a year or a set of years with a general number of presentations, audiences, and topics, that’s great, too.

This is all icing on the cake. You’ll notice I’m a slacker and I haven’t done all this– I just started my page last year and have done my best to get things on it after that point. But you can certainly outdo me.

Don’t make maintaining your speaker resume too difficult

Use abstracts and content you’ve already written, and do your best to keep it updated— design the page so it isn’t very time consuming.

I like to remove some information from past events and just keep the title, topic, location, and some comments on the event, but this is more effort than you really have to put in.

Do you keep a speaker resume?

Do you have tips to share which I’ve missed?

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Free Session: The Mystery of Query Timeouts

by on July 25, 2011

I’m giving a webinar tomorrow!

(Do people still use the word webinar? Was that just incredibly uncool?)

There’s still spots open, so register today. Here’s a drawing from my slide deck and what I’ll be talking about.

Note: This is part of Triage Tuesdays, a set of free weekly sessions from Brent Ozar PLF. Look for more good stuff coming soon.

July 26 – The Mystery of Query Timeouts
Brent Ozar PLF Tuesday Tech Triage, 9:30 AM Pacific / 11:30AM Central / Noon thirty Eastern

“People are complaining about query timeouts. I don’t see anything happening in SQL Server, but they always say the database is the problem. How can I tell what’s really going on?”

When your users keep hitting timeouts in their application, they naturally think the database is killing off helpless queries. In this webinar Kendra Little will tell you how to triage treacherous timeout situations and collect hard evidence about whether or not the problem is in the database. Do the right detective work and you can turn your frustrated users and irate developers into raving fans.

This session will be 200-level – you should have familiarity with OLTP concepts and understand what DMVs and Profiler are, but you don’t have to be an expert with them.

Register for the free webcast here.

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I’m a Microsoft Certified Master in SQL Server

by on July 12, 2011

I've unlocked the MCM Badge on SQL Server!

I don’t typically blog individual links for each of my posts over at BrentOzar.com, but this is a special occasion.

I am thrilled to say I am now a Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server 2008!

Read more in my post here.

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Write down your presentation ideas - you don't need PowerPoint for this.

How to Make a Presentation: Writing Versus PowerPoint

by on July 6, 2011

How do you make your next PowerPoint presentation great? We all know that PowerPoint presentations can be horrible.

This Isn’t a Powerpoint How To. It’s How To Make a Presentation.

 

The most common mistake in making a presentation is getting started in PowerPoint or Keynote right away.

If you dive in to PowerPoint too soon you will over complicate your slides. Your narrative will be stronger if you start by taking a larger, more strategic view of your presentation. These steps will show you how to make a logical, complete presentation.

1. Write Down Your Presentation Ideas Constantly
Pre PowerPoint / Keynote
(Time: a few minutes each day)

You get ideas a lot. Write them down in Evernote or jot them in a notebook you carry with you. Put down enough specifics so later you have some idea what the details were and why you liked it.

Write down your presentation ideas - you don't need PowerPoint for this.

You don't need spellcheck for ideas

This is the most important step in my method.

The key is to write down all your ideas. If it interests you, write it down. Maybe this is a presentation you’ll give in five years, or never– you need to write it down.

When this happens: All the time, whether or not you’re planning a presentation.
Why’s this so important? Writing down ideas helps you have more ideas. It becomes a habit to just think about “what about a talk on X?”

2. Outline Your Talking Points
Pre PowerPoint / Keynote
(Time: 5-10 minutes)

Start with an outline. Outlines don’t need to be numbered or bulleted unless you’re more comfortable that way.

Don’t do this in PowerPoint or Keynote. Use a paper and pen or an electronic notepad.

The initial outline may not look much like the finished presentation. They often don’t– and that’s fine.

If you can put a whole bunch of stuff down easily for ideas of where to go with the talk and how to get there, you know it’s likely to be a good talk. If you have real trouble getting things down in an outline then you may need to do more research. You may need to refocus the topic.

Rough out how long you will spend on each part of the talk. Don’t hold yourself to this, but use it to judge whether you picked a topic that’s too big or too small.

When this happens: Outline once at the beginning of a presentation. You may do this soon after having an idea and then not look at it for a while, until you’re ready to do the talk.
Why’s this so important? This helps make sure the topic is right for you and that the talk is at the right scale. If the subject is too big, maybe you need to pan out a bit and not focus on so much detail. If it’s too small, maybe you need to expand the surface area and cover more.

3. Write Your Presentation Abstract or Executive Summary
Pre Powerpoint / Keynote
(Time: 20-30 minutes)

If you’re submitting to a conference, you’ll usually be required to write an abstract for your presentation. Even if you’re not, it’s extremely useful to have a short overview of your talk, so don’t skip this step.

Writing an abstract or executive summary is an opportunity to really think about your audience. Write down what is interesting in your topic and why it should matter to your audience. Approaching the abstract this way helps you develop the presentation for people.

If you put the right kind of thought into your abstract it makes writing your presentation easier.

This step essentially takes the content you roughed out in the outline and focuses it toward your audience.

You’re still not in PowerPoint yet. If you’re chomping at the bit to get in there, go ahead and do this on a slide, but you’re still just fine with pen and paper or a simple electronic notepad.

When this happens: When you start thinking about submitting a talk.
Why’s this so important? This helps shape your talk to your audience.
Remember:  Have fun with the abstract. Use word association. Tell people what’s in it for them.

4. What’s Your Presentation Title?
Pre Powerpoint / Keynote
(Time: 20 minutes minimum)

This is even more important than the abstract. Lots and lots more people will read your title and need to make a quick decision about whether they want to see your presentation. Do this AFTER you write the abstract, because you can use what you’ve decided about your audience.

Get feedback on your title ideas– ask friends and other speakers what they think. Explain your audience to them.

When this happens: After writing your abstract.
Why’s this so important? This is how to sell your presentation to your audience.
Remember: Sometime the title you thought of first is really the best one. Don’t be afraid of sticking with that title. Just be open to considering others in case you find something great.

5. Submit Your Presentation Topic
Online
(Time: 3 minutes)

If you’re aiming to speak at a specific conference or meeting, this is the point you consider a presentation ready to submit. If you’ve gotten this far and like the talk then go ahead and run with it– submitting means you’re committing to deliver the presentation if it’s selected, not that it’s already complete.

When this happens: When you’re planning your schedule and figuring out what events you’d like to speak at.
Why this only takes three minutes: Unless you haven’t written a bio yet or need to drastically shorten your abstract, this is simple copy-paste.

6. Create Your PowerPoint Slide Headers and Order Your Slides
Now You’re In PowerPoint!
(Time: Varies widely: plan for at minimum 5 hours preparation for every 10 minutes of the talk)

This is where you start building the slide deck.

First, lay out concepts on individual slides by filling in only the slide title. Put one concept per slide, and get them all out there.

Next rearrange the slides and create section headers. Look at your presentation in the slide sorter and examine the flow of the slides and the story you’re telling. You want to shape your talk here, before you spend too much time on any single slide. Reorder the slides until you’re happy with the story you’re telling.

At the end of this step you should only have blank slides with headings filled in.

7. Find Pictures for Your Slides. Source and Cite Your Images Responsibly.

When the presentation has good shape and flow, start diving in and filling out individual slides with pictures, diagrams, or words.

Keep your slides simple– you want only a few words and bullets per slide, typically with only one picture. The worst thing you can do to your presentation is to over complicate your slides.

Use images from the internet responsibly. Brent Ozar tells you how to find free pictures for presentations the right way.

8. Start Your Presentation Strong and Finish BIG

After you have your presentation set up, put it away for a day or two. Then go back in and look closely at your beginning and ending.

Do you have an interesting introduction? Do you have a strong finish? Make sure your audience has the right information at the end of your presentation: are you mandating them to go out and do something? Should they contact you for more information? Are you driving them to a website?

Give your audience a place to go. Give them the information to keep in touch with you.

9. Test and Refine

An important part of making a presentation is taking it for a test drive. You can do this by yourself at first.

  • Is your presentation the right length?
  • Do you like the way your presentation flows?
  • Are there changes you would like to make?

Delivering test runs of the presentation will help you answer all these questions prior to going in front of a larger audience.

10. Be Confident

If you’ve followed these steps, you’ve made a great presentation. Your audience wants to see you and you’ve made a presentation to support you in delivering information. Breathe deeply and use the work you’ve done, and your presentation will be great.
Enjoy yourself.

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